Top 20 economies still struggling to create jobs

New numbers from the International Labor Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show a troubling jobs trend: the world's most prosperous countries are still having a hard time creating jobs.

It's been six years since the financial crisis started and still one-third of the 93 million unemployed people in the top 20 economies have been looking for work for more than a year. Here's a look at the long-term unemployment trends for all the G20 countries:

It's not a pretty picture. While Brazil, Russia, and Germany have reduced long-term unemployment since the end of 2007, well over half of the G20 countries have seen long-term unemployment levels get worse or stay the same.

It's no surprise then that The International Monetary Fund recently reduced its outlook for the global economy in 2013 and 2014. "[W]e cannot expect significant improvement in the employment situation unless countries undertake more ambitious policies to address the jobs deficit”, said ILO Director General Guy Ryder, in a statement.

Among those policies the ILO and OECD are pushing G20 counties to adopt are investment in infrastructure, expanding minimum wage coverage, and enhancing skills development programs.

In a joint statement by the ILO and OECD, the groups also called on the G20 to give youth unemployment their "full attention," as half of the countries had a youth unemployment rate above 16 percent in the first quarter of 2013.

Read more: Full report

Photo: Flickr/slightly everything

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com